Five rules which you would bring in if you had control over the Football League. Here's mine; -Go back to 7 subs - There are no valid arguments (other than saving on hotel bills) as to why it is beneficial to clubs to have only 5 subs on the bench. -Acknowledgement and observation of refereeing mistakes should be permitted in interviews (withing reason, i.e actual criticism should not be allowed) - too many teams are robbed of games they should have won, yet cannot even draw attention to blatant handballs, off the ball incidents or misjudged red cards through fear of being given a ban. -Standing at football games - lets face it, very many fans love to stand up and sing at games, and being forced to sit down really kills off the atmosphere. Safe standing area's (a la The Bundesliga) are a very realistic option, and are far safer than fans standing up in areas designed to be seated (like our very own covered end) -End of the emergency loan window - not a very big problem admittedly, but as someone pointed out in an interview earlier in the week, clubs should plan for all eventualities during the actual transfer window rather than relying on bringing in upcoming Premier League stars on loan whenever one of their players get injured (or even just to improve the squad). It also hampers the moral and development of other players within the squad. -No to goal-line technology - not only am I fighting a losing battle here, but I'm sure most if not all posters on here probably disagree with me, but I believe that goal line technology would be a terrible mistake, firstly, because football should be the same game for every team in every league, the rules that apply to The Premier League should be the same rules that apply for the Ryman Isthmian League, and secondly, because what is football without controversy? As a Charlton fan I love to have something to moan about, disallowed goals which should have standed, balls kicked off the line which were clearly in the back of the net, and cheeky pushes on the goalkeeper are all many imperfect aspects of the game which make it so perfect - I do not want to watch a match where every decision is a correct one, where refereeing decisions are backed up with video evidence and where the game is stopped after every dodgy looking goal just to ensure it went in after all. Anyways, I look forward to hearing your comments and reading your own ideas, however wacky they may be
Before I start my rant, let's be clear on what you are asking. Here you say "the Football League". In your thread title you say "the football leagues", which to me implies all football from the Premiership down to Little Snoring and District under-11 league. I don't agree. The "valid reason" you overlook is that Association Football is a game to be played by teams of eleven players, not 18 or 22 per team. Substitutes were originally brought in for two reasons: (1) To reduce the number of games spoilt as a spectacle because one or more players on one side were injured. (2) To stop players being asked to, or feeling morally obliged to, play on when injured, thus risking turning a minor injury into a major one. Of course all older fans will remember some stirring battles against the odds, and shouting "come on the ten men!", and also many a brave player carrying on with his head swathed in blood-soaked bandages or limping along at centre-forward until a winning goal deflects in off his arse. But the truth is that those occasions were very much in the minority and in most cases matches were spoilt and players risked more serious, and perhaps career-threatening injuries by playing on. Perhaps the famous example was Bert Trautmann playing on in goal with a broken neck. He could have died. The other reason for substitutes is that it was suspected some teams would deliberately injure an opposing player to gain a numerical advantage despite the risk of a yellow or red card. Once substitutes were allowed, the advantage gained was much reduced and not worth risking a red card. First one substitute was allowed, then one and a goalie, then two. then three. Then it was decided that you have to have a substitute to cover each specialist playing position. Now you want seven. Why not a complete reserve team like in American Football? In my opinion three substitutes is ample to solve the original problem. So your left-back is injured and you have to bring on a right-back to replace him instead of another specialist left-back. Ah diddums! What a tragedy! How the universe is conspiring against you! I say "Grow up, and be a man!" As for giving youth players a taste of experience, there are better ways to do that. One is ending, or considerably curtailing, the loans system, which is becoming farcical. Like substitutes, a good idea introduced to answer certain problems, but now vastly over-inflated and abused so that some teams have little identity and lose touch with their fans (Charlton under Pardew and Parky a clear example of this).
Quite agree with all of them points, although I personally wouldn't want total standing at stadiums. But if I were the Football League boss the first thing that I would do is split from the Premier League.
Initially what I meant was 'The Football League' (i.e Championship, League One, League Two) but thought I wouldn't restrict it too much if other posters wanted to make a comment about the Premier League/Non League etc. I'm assuming Eddie that you are from an older generation than I am (thats not a dig!), but for as long as I can remember in my lifetime teams have been permitted 5-7 subs on the bench, as that has been what I have grown up with, that is why I feel the way I do. I know that for some, one substitute would do (and admittedly I would be quite excited by the idea of, for example, Scott Wagstaff having to come on and play in goal), but I feel that football has benefitted from having a number of subs on the bench and that is why the changes were implemented. I feel the game would be much less of a spectacle if we had to make do with playing a striker at RB, a LB up front, etc, but thats just my opinion I guess. It would also mean an end to 'tactical-substitutions' which are such common place nowadays (how often every game do you hear someone from behind shouting 'Make a Change!' or simply 'Take him off, he's ****!'). I do agree wholeheartedly with your comment about the abuse of the loan system, especially with the idea of a loss of shared identity between the players and fans (I wonder how often the likes of Keith Gillespie, Leroy Lita and Tresor Kandol think back to their time as an Addick). However, I feel that scrapping the loan system wouldn't make enough of a difference to the development of our younger players, think for example of Joe Piggott, he's been getting some decent reviews from his time in the youth team from what I can gather, but for him to feature in our first team (apart from in the cups), it would presumably require injuries to Bradley Wright-Phillips, Paul Hayes, Yann Kermorgant, Danny Haynes, Leon Clarke, Scott Wagstaff, Michael Smith and Jason Euell (though sadly in reality, if such an event did occur we would just sign a few strikers on an emergency loan). On the other hand, given a choice of 7 subs rather than 5, we can free up two spaces reserved solely for a couple of youth players, who can come on and get some valuable experience if we have a decent lead in the last ten minutes. With neither of the two possibilities happening, the chances are he will be released when his contract ends, sign for another club, and quite possibly, rise back up the leagues to calls of "Why did we ever release him??!" (afterall, we've seen it happen so many times). Kish, I didn't mean total standing, I meant, for example, the North Upper converted into a safe standing area. Interestingly the ones used in Germany also have seats, though these seats are locked during football matches. Anyone have an idea of why this is? Can't quite see how sitting down in an all-standing area would be any more dangerous than standing up in an all standing area. I also agree with splitting from the Premier League
A couple of examples of safe standing area's in the Bundesliga in case anyone is curious or hasn't yet seen one...
Retroactive suspensions for diving - Simple really. If a player is judged to have won, or tried to win a free kick or penalty via simulation, they should be given a two match suspension. This would only apply to completely obvious cases, not exageration or going down a bit easily. Maximum of two loan players in a match day squad - Again. Simple. End to the transfer window. - Allow teams to buy players at any time. I don't see the point in limiting transfer activity. Obviously would need to limit the amount of players teams can buy, but I don't think you should limit when. Allow standing. Already explained by somebody else. And one that would be interesting to experiment with. Remove draws. If a game is level after 90 minutes, it goes to a penalty shootout! Not really sure how it would go, but would be interesting to see for a bit.
Diving-You beat me to it, Ryan-R. I don't think it's a major problem in division 3, but watching MOTD the referee's job is impossible at times due to the amount of cheating which goes on in the Premier League. This also brings in the original point about referees being allowed to admit to mistakes. They would have to admit to being fooled by a player's play-acting, which would be anathema to the likes of Rob Styles or Andy Durso, but they'd have to learn to do it.
Not a fan of the idea of ending the transfer window (the Summer window is just about the only thing that keeps me sane during the summer with a lack of games to watch) or the idea of scrapping draws, I think the MLS tried to do this at one point? Personally I feel it will take away the 'magic' of Cup and Play-Off games when penalties become a real possibility, part of the fascination with a penalty shoot-out is that they happen so rarely - the possiblity of having penalties in every game in my opinion, would render them a bit dull. Diving is an interesting one as it can be such a difficult thing to judge, some players simply 'go down easily', not diving but simply that they 'help themselves to the floor' through fear of injuring themselves by trying to stay up. I've also heard some amateur players say that at times they have dived just to make the referee aware of them being persistently fouled by an opposition player (i.e, staying on their feet makes it look a lot more like an acceptable challenge than if they were to fall to the floor). Again, I feel diving adds to the controversy of football, which itself makes it even more of a spectacle, but I do get infuriated every time it happens, even with our own players - Wagstaff for example, I can't remember too many cases of him 'diving' as such, but he does make the most of every foul. Another is Nicky Bailey who similarly, writhed around on the floor like a wood-louse every time he was taken down. Izale Mcleod is another example, he found such difficulty putting the ball in the back of the net for us, but won us countless penalties and free kicks with his diving
You probably have a point on the penalties actually. (Although on the plus side if they became common place, England might actually win a penalty shootout at some point) I still think most transfer activity would take place during the Summer when matches aren't being played. But having it always open would give teams more options (Goes well with my reduced loan rule). Although you'd never hear the end of transfer rumours from JA...so maybe not. Diving is poison to the game. It is nothing short of cheating and should be erased. If a player goes down and appeals for a penalty, then replays show there was no contact, it's an open and shut case. Like I said, things like going down easily should not be punishable...because it then ends up being a huge grey area like the current situation with "dangerous tackles".
Ryan - getting rid of draws would be an Americanism I could not stand, if two teams have proved themselves equal over the 90 minutes, why must there be a winner? Obviously for cup competitions there should be, but not for the league. Re goalline technology - I don't understand how 'it creates controversies' is a valid argument against it. Surely the most important thing is that as many decisions as possible are correct, and decisions as important as whether or not to award a goal are crucial. And as for the argument that football should be the same no matter what level - are there 4th officials in Sunday League football? I don't hear many tennis players complaining that Hawkeye is only available on the major show courts. Is it not better that some games (the ones with more riding on them) have goalline technology and others don't, rather than none having it?
For the English leagues... Retrospective punishment of cheating of all kinds. Punishment depending on the importance of the cheating. An end to the ban on terraces in the Championship. An end to the lies from the Football Licensing Authority. Encouragement of standing areas in all grounds. Safe standing areas, I mean. This should not affect those people who would like to sit at the football. Discourage all-seater grounds, or grounds significantly bigger than the fanbase Something to discourage clubs from loaning players to win lower league titles. Maybe a points deduction based on how many divisions your loan players have dropped and how many matches they've played. Better imo for Man Utd to loan players to Yeovil than to Sheffield Wednesday. More promotion/relegation spots. The leagues are very fluid in ability (see Peterborough, Stevenage and Crawley climbing the divisions, or Plymouth/Stockport/Darlington dropping). Expanding the promotion spots would allow clubs rise through the tiers without overstretching themselves, and discourage reckless budgeting aimed at avoiding relegation. That's what I'm thinking of now. It'd be different if you were asking about another league or at another time.
I'd like the half-time scores to be put in a-z slots around the ground by some blonde dolly in high heels - that way, it would stop me from having to partake in that coloured tasteless water that makes me want to leave my seat at 64 mins.
Players who injure another player have to stay off the pitch while the opposition player gets treated (or other player is substituted) and if the opposition have used all there substitutes and injured player is unable to continue then both teams finish the game with 10 players as player who caused the injury is not allowed to return.
In my imaginary world... I would revert back to the old European Cup basis that only the top team (Champions) qualify from the PL. I would add an addition that one second place will be available in the European Cup/Champions League but see * below. Then I would close the Pampers League until further notice, to any promotion or relegation from other divisions. I hope that with this and the above changes, that the greedy ones (including those in the league) through out our game will poo their pants. Having carried out that move, I would then revert all my attention to the league structure: Championship League One League Two (South) including the Conference League Two (North) including the Conference Keeping the current promotion/relegation/playoff format. I know there is a flaw with the North/South divide but I'll leave someone else to work that one out. *I would retain the FA Cup but allow one other European Cup qualifying place from it, to ensure the Pampers League do not try to spoil the party. Any formation of Pampers League 'B' teams would be banned. Any formation of a European league structure will be banned. Finally I would lift all banning orders on YouTube league videos, to assist in the aid of supporting piracy. ps. if the Pampers League do not play along in the fairness and within the spirit of these new rules or if they try to make additional destructive changes themselves, they will be forced through government legislation to move too and play in Scotland. Now have I missed anything?
If we're going to expand this thread into Europe I'd not only scrap the Champion's League and bring back the European Cup with only the League winners competing, I'd bring back the Cup-winners Cup. And the Uefa Cup for good measure.
